A basic lesson

CRITICS who question the need for children in primary school to be subjected to national tests and league tables miss a crucial point.

The tables are not there to judge the pupils, but to ensure that the system is not failing them.

Today we report that a higher proportion of seven-year-olds are failing to master the three Rs in Yorkshire than in any other region in the country. We are bottom of this national table by only a narrow margin and the pupils in question have been in school for just three years. For some, however, their life chances are already being blighted.

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These new figures mark the start of a familiar and disturbing pattern.

Yorkshire also has the nation’s lowest level of pupils reaching the expected standards at the end of both primary and secondary school. Today’s figures highlight the importance of making a difference at the very beginning of a child’s education. These children are still a decade away from entering the jobs market, but the warnings signs are already there that we are failing to equip them with the skills that they will need in later life.

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